Code Fellows Launches Women-Only Development Accelerator

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Code
Fellows, a Seattle-based digital trade school, today announced that
it has launched a Development
Accelerator offered exclusively for women interested in advancing
their careers as Ruby on Rails web developers. The female-only course,
which will have the same rigorous curriculum as Code Fellows’ other
Rails Development Accelerators, is intended to address the widening
gender gap in the software programming industry.

The 8-week program starts on July 7th and is designed for
experienced developers looking to dive significantly deeper into Ruby on
Rails development. Women participating in program will be eligible for
Code Fellows’ $60k+ and $100k+ job-offer guarantee, depending on their
prior programming experience.

“Women are still greatly outnumbered by their male counterparts in the
programming industry,” said Kristin Smith, Code Fellows CEO. “While it
was once a female-dominated industry, the pendulum has swung back hard
in the other direction. We’re simply looking to make the opportunity in
today’s tech environment more equitable for smart women with superior
programming skills.”

According to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Labor, women
only comprise 34% of web developers and only 20% of all types of
software developers.

“At Expedia our mission is to, ‘Re-invent travel through the power of
technology,’” said Aman Bhutani, SVP Expedia Worldwide Engineering. “We
have invested behind that mission and our technology teams have grown in
size, scale and capability. Building and growing teams of highly capable
technologists, regardless of gender, is one of today’s greatest
challenges. Achieving gender balance is even more difficult in
technology organizations and many hypotheses exist for this covering the
spectrum from culture to self-selection to expectations. A women-only
Development Accelerator program from Code Fellows has helped us connect
with female developers that are well trained and bring the right
combination of attitude and aptitude. We are excited to support this
program.”

According to Code Fellows’ recently published data, 82% of its graduates
receive a job offer within three months of graduating – with an average
starting salary of $75,600 per year. The top reported salary offer for a
Code Fellows graduate in 2013 was $155,000.

Additionally, 18% of Code Fellows’ graduates have chosen to start their
own business. Diana Pham, Co-Founder of Seattle-based DinoHulk,
which specializes in developing educational story-based apps for kids,
is one of 19 women who graduated from Code Fellows’ July 2013 women-only
development program.

“After being accepted into the program, the fact that I was able to keep
up with everyone in class – even though I was working nights and
weekends – made me feel invincible,” Pham said. “Code Fellows helped me
realize that I had the skills to compete, and that I was in control of
my life. It was my springboard for launching DinoHulk.”

Code Fellows is a Seattle-based digital trade school that guarantees
high-paying job offers after successful completion of its development
accelerators. Their staff, students, and alumni are passionate about
helping individuals, communities, and organizations thrive by providing
world-class technical education, career coaching, and job placement
services. To learn more about Code Fellows, visit www.codefellows.org.